Yes, it’s that time of year again. As the days get longer and the Sun slides toward the Solstice, most mornings we have to catch the Cat Goodman and put sunblock on his ears.
Goodman is white. Very white. Indeed, dazzlingly white. (Hence his name — a reference to the white helper-cat in the Uncle books. 
The neighbors call him “Mr. Persil”, a reference to a local brand of laundry detergent and its ads for whiter-than-white wash.) The weird thing, though, is that for one reason or another he has very little fur on his ears. As a result, they get sunburned, and some summers back we started noticing that around the beginning of June, Goodman would start turning into a cat version of those pink-eared white fayhounds that run through Irish mythology.
Skin cancer is a very real threat for a cat in this situation. So we started putting sunblock on his ears. The problem is (a) knowing on which day you’re really going to need to do this — Irish weather reports being famously afraid to say the word “sunny” for fear of scaring said celestial body away — and (b) once you’ve determined that this is the day, then you have to find and catch the cat. Goodman, like any other respectable (former) tom with a large territory to patrol, does not consult us regarding his comings and goings, and may be a mile or two away when the weather shifts to sunny. This introduces a sometimes annoying element of chance into the whole business.
Anyway, we caught him just now and did the deed. He struggles a lot less than he used to. 
Just watch it start raining now, though…
(In answer to an e-mail inquiry: The sunblock we’re using is from La Roche-Posay: the brand is “Anthelios” — a fragrance-free, hypoallergenic spray-on sunblock for fair skin, SPF 30. It gives Goodman no trouble, but I’m still looking for a spray-on hypoallergenic with a higher SPF. 50 would make me happier.)
